Ammon News - AMMAN - Jordan has granted citizenship to the wife and sons of Iraq's jailed former deputy premier Tareq Aziz, who have lived in the kingdom since the 2003 US-led invasion, an official said on Tuesday.

"The council of ministers granted Jordanian citizenship on Monday to Saddam Tareq Aziz and his mother Violet Yusef Nobud," the official told AFP.

"The elder son, Ziad Tareq Aziz, and his wife, Seba Mzaffar Antwan, have been granted citizenship recently, upon their request," he said.

He gave no further details.

Named foreign minister in 1983 and then deputy Prime Minister in 1991, Aziz, 73, turned himself in to US forces in April 2003 after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

Aziz, who has been convicted for crimes against humanity, was from a Chaldean Catholic family.

One of a handful of long-term senior survivors of Saddam's regime, Aziz is reported to have suffered two heart attacks in custody.

About 4.4 million Iraqis have fled their homes since the 2003 invasion, with about 750,000 now living in Jordan, according to UN and Jordanian figures.

* (AFP)